Local men volunteer to help in New Jersey with Sandy clean-up

The year-end holidays mark the season of giving, and the men of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Fairview Ward have taken that idea and put it into action.

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By Colleen Seidel/The Record Herald

Waynesboro Record Herald - Waynesboro, PA

By Colleen Seidel/The Record Herald

Posted Dec. 22, 2012 at 11:45 AM

By Colleen Seidel/The Record Herald

Posted Dec. 22, 2012 at 11:45 AM

The year-end holidays mark the season of giving, and the men of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Fairview Ward have taken that idea and put it into action.

A collection of Waynesboro-area men who attend the church spent two weekends volunteering their time and physical abilities to help with cleanup work in New Jersey, which was slammed by Superstorm Sandy in October.

The first group of 10 ventured to Union Beach, N.J., the weekend of Nov. 17 and 18, according to team leader Adam Wine.

The second group of 12 participants worked in the same town the weekend of Dec. 1 and 2.

"We were asked to go help out and do the Lord's work," Wine said. "There's nothing like going to help someone out in their time of need."

Disaster response

Wine holds an entire career of experience helping out in emergency response as a chief warrant officer with the United States Coast Guard, which he joined in 1984. The 49-year-old Fairfield resident said he's provided first-response help for as many as 19 hurricanes in his career, including Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

As an active duty member of the Coast Guard, whose job includes communicating with the public in times of crisis, Wine said that at this point, responding to hurricanes is "just a part of the job."

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is "one of the first groups that steps up in disaster response," according to Wine. He added that the church organizes disaster response on a national and international level.

After Sandy, the church sent out requests for assistance and Fairview Ward, where Wine attends church, answered the call.

"Our bishop remembered that I was active duty Coast Guard and felt I should be team leader," he said.

Teamwork

"The entire debris pile was about the length of a tractor-trailer and about as high," Wine said about the group's first main project at a house in Union Beach on Nov. 17.

The men had to remove all of the furniture from the house and some of the carpet and remove the walls "all the way to the studs."

"We were pulling everything from refrigerators to furniture to couches," Wine said. "Actually, we couldn't get the couch out of the house. We had to take a chain saw to it."

"The houses we worked in were nearly destroyed," said Abram Moats, a junior at Waynesboro Area Senior High School, who traveled with the group. "It seemed as if the sea had contrived to swallow the entire town of Union Beach. The damage was incredible."

The men set up a system while they were tearing down walls that Wine called "The Bucket Brigade." Some of the men carried out debris in 5-gallon buckets as the others were tearing down the walls.

Jeff Flohr, media representative for Fairview Ward and one of the men who went on the trips, said that the Waynesboro group were not the only ones at Union Beach. Other volunteers included individuals, different church groups and other disaster response organizations.

"It was great to see all the different volunteers helping those who (were) in great need," Flohr said. "It was a privilege to be among all the volunteers and see the good side of humanity."

'That could be my room'

The experience impacted the volunteers as much as it did the Union Beach residents they were serving.

"Everything you touch, you have to treat it like its your own," Wine said. "(The residents) were very happy ... that there was someone there that could help them in their time of need."

For the teenagers on the trip, it was an experience sure to stick with them for years to come.

"They were seeing rooms that belonged to youth, bookshelves with books so swollen you couldn't pull them out. And their faces went 'Wow. That could be my room,'" Wine said

Moats, 16, said that the experience for him "was awesome in every sense of the word."

He added that it was "a doubly great experience" because he was able to go with his father, Andy Moats.

"It made the experience more special than the service alone. It was a chance to learn from him and get to know him better."

"These guys, they came, they loved it, they had a lot more energy than we did," Wine said about the young men. "And I told them, these are the things that make the memories of your life."